PREVALENCE OF TB/HIV CO-INFECTION AMONG PATIENTS ATTENDING MUHIMA HOSPITAL

Abstract

The biological link between the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquired immunedeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and tuberculosis (TB) has been evident for some years; HIV isfueling the TB epidemic around the world, and the tuberculosis is the leading cause of death inpeople living with HIV, thus the integration of HIV and TB in diagnosis, treatment andprevention should increase patient care, thus we have conducted a study on the prevalence ofTB/HIV co- infection among patients attending TB service in Muhima Hospital from Januaryto August 2016 in order to assess if the prevalence of TB/HIV co-infection would be highamong the patients attending TB service at Muhima District Hospital. The study populationswere the patients suspected for TB attending TB service at Muhima hospital and we found thatthe prevalence of HIV among the patients suspected of TB equals to 24.9%. Even if thisprevalence seems to be high compared to the normal population, those patients are exposedpatients. According to the TB status, the prevalence of TB among the patients suspected of TBequals to 26.60%. Even if this prevalence seems to be high compared to the normal population,those patients are exposed patients regarding that Muhima hospital is surrounded by thecatchment area of vulnerable population like Nyabugogo. The analysis of immunologicalprofile of those suspected patients have been done by measuring CD4 count and the analysisof correlation between TB a been done using coefficient of correlation r where it has showedthat there is a significance negative correlation between the number of CD4 and tuberculosis.This may be explained that if the immunological profile is reduced, the individuals are exposedto opportunistic disease like tuberculosis. The analysis of correlation between TB and HIV co-infection has been done using coefficient of correlation r where it has showed that there is asignificance positive correlation between the number of CD4 and tuberculosis with r= .471 withp>0.05. We found also that the prevalence of co-infected patients equal to 15.6%, the HIVpositive to 9%, the TB positive to 10%. As conclusion the integration of HIV/TB have to bedone for proper care of the patients.